Soap is one of the oldest chemicals known to man. It constitutes a significant role in the surfactant markets of the present day industry.
The manufacture of solid soaps is made up of several steps, namely, conversion of fats and oils into soap concentrates, drying of the soap and finishing of the soap in such mechanical steps as milling, plodding, addition of additives, cutting, conditioning, stamping and wrapping.
The first step of the prior art preparation is carried out either by direct saponification using the old-fashioned kettle process or by one of the newer continuous neutral fat saponification processes. The soap is prepared by the fatty acid route involving conversion of the fats into fatty acids and glycerine using a high pressure continuous fat splitting column, followed by distillation and neutralization using either Ph or viscosity controls. The choice process is a function of raw material consideration, capacity, formula variability and general economic considerations. Such soaps generally have a moisture content approaching 10 to 20 percent. The soap is then finished, which includes all the steps required to convert soap pellets into finished wrapped and packaged soap bars. Thus, it can be observed that the present methods for obtaining solid soaps is cumbersome, time consuming, and relative expensive.